Bryusov paintings. Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich. Historical novels and concepts

Biography and episodes of life Valeria Bryusova. When born and died Valery Bryusov, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. poet quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Valery Bryusov:

born December 1, 1873, died October 9, 1924

Epitaph

"He was ignited by the call of the call,
Whoever shouted - an innovator or Batu ...
Without hesitation, the ambitious dryish,
Accepting rebellion, he hastened to comprehend it.

A formidable scourge rose above the routine
In the hand confidently clamped,
Paid for a novelty with a generous fee
European-tailored Muscovite.

Being born a businessman and becoming a successful poet,
How often did he break his voice in falsetto,
In insatiable passion, ruining everything!

All my life dreaming about myself, cast iron,
Ready to sing songs to the coming Huns,
He did not spare - first of all - himself ... "
Igor Severyanin's poem "Bryusov"

Biography

The pillar of national symbolism, Valery Bryusov, seemed to have been born under a lucky star. He grew up in a wealthy family and received a good education. The future poet began to write poetry from the age of 13. His creative path developed very successfully, and even during his lifetime, Bryusov was called the "master".

However, Bryusov himself was no more modest about his own work. The poet was sure that he was born for great deeds, that he was called to leave an immortal legacy to his descendants. His poems, Bryusov was sure, would be taught at school, and monuments would be erected to their author.

V. Bryusov was not so wrong: he actually became a classic even during his lifetime. After a period of enthusiasm for the French Symbolists, the young poet found his own true line. His collections come out one after another, dedicated, as the author said, “not to contemporaries and humanity”, but “to eternity and art”.

After graduating from the university, V. Bryusov was engaged exclusively in literary activities. He wrote and translated poetry and published several prose works. The reaction to the latter was ambiguous, but, one way or another, they did not go unnoticed. Bryusov was ambitious, and his ambition was justified: almost all the young poets of that time paid tribute to his manner by free or involuntary imitations.

However, already before the revolution, Bryusov's collections were evaluated by critics much cooler than his early works. The poet is trying to experiment with genres, is fond of prose. After the revolution, he took an inspired part in the cultural life of the capital, actively participated in the initiatives of the Soviet government, and occupied the leading positions offered to him. But here Bryusov is also disappointed: the new poetry, poetry for the Soviet people, does not agree well with his complex, sometimes experimental constructions. The poet's personal life was also not smooth: she had a single and devoted wife, but there were also passions and dramatic events.

The last years of his life, Bryusov suffered from dissatisfaction, disappointment and lack of recognition. In the end, with his high ambitions and desire to erect a “monument not made by hands” for himself, with his work, the poet was not needed in the new world. Bryusov died at the age of 50 from pneumonia, but those who knew him personally believed that the disease could only get ahead of the poet's possible suicide.

life line

December 1, 1873 Date of birth of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov.
1881 Bryusov's first poems.
1885-1889 Studying at the gymnasium F. Kreiman.
1890-1889 Studying at the L. Polivanov gymnasium.
1894-1895 Bryusov published three collections "Russian Symbolists" under the pseudonym "Valery Maslov".
1893 Admission to the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University.
1895 Publication of the first poetry collection by V. Bryusov "Masterpieces".
1897 Edition of the second poetry collection by V. Bryusov "This is me". Marriage to I. Runt.
1899 Graduation from the university, the beginning of work in the journal "Russian archive".
1900 Edition of the third collection of Bryusov "The Third Guard".
1903 Edition of the collection "Urbi et Orbi". Appointment as secretary of the editorial board of the New Way.
1905 Edition of the collection "Wreath".
1907 Publication of the collection of short stories "Earth's Axis".
1908 Appointment as director of the Moscow literary and artistic circle.
1909 Edition of the collection "All tunes".
1914 Sending to the front as a war correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti.
1917-1919 Management of the Press Registration Committee.
1919-1921 Appointment as chairman of the presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets.
1921 Organization of the Higher Institute of Literature and Art, whose rector and professor V. Bryusov was until his death.
October 9, 1924 Date of death of Valery Bryusov.

Memorable places

1. D. 25 on the street. Petrovka, where the Kreyman gymnasium was located when V. Bryusov studied there.
2. D. 32 on the street. Prechistenka, where Polivanov's gymnasium was located when V. Bryusov studied there.
3. Moscow University, graduated from V. Bryusov.
4. House number 30 on Mira Avenue in Moscow, where Bryusov lived in 1910-1924.
5. House No. 52 on Povarskaya Street, where the Higher Literary and Art Institute named after V. Ya. Bryusov (1921-1925) was located, which was organized and where the poet worked.
6. Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, where V. Bryusov is buried.

Episodes of life

Bryusov strove to be the first in everything, in managerial positions - to rule and dictate his will; did not like criticism. Those who knew him admitted that "the feeling of equality was completely alien to Bryusov", he "could either command or obey."

Rather, ambition than political convictions explains Bryusov's zeal for work under Soviet rule. Alas, his works were not appreciated: Bryusov's poems were not suitable for propaganda purposes, and as a poet under the Bolsheviks, Bryusov was needed much less than as just an official.

In the last years of his life, V. Bryusov was very lonely and was in a depressed state of mind. Perhaps because of this, he was addicted to morphine.

Transfer from the cycle “Mysticism of Love” “Valery Bryusov and Nina Petrovskaya. Duel"

Testaments

“It is necessary to choose one thing - either life or death: if you cannot live, then die immediately; if you don’t want to die, live, and don’t be like a snail!”

"Good manners is to be no different from others."

“My youth is the youth of a genius. I lived and acted in such a way that only great deeds can justify my behavior.

“In a given society, we always remain in the same mask in which we accidentally appear there for the first time, and each of us has to wear many different masks in different circles.”

condolences

“Everyone involuntarily chooses from Bryusov what seems to him the closest, most understandable in him. And everyone makes mistakes, because in Bryusov there is nothing close to others: everything is alien to him, he is all his own and only his own.
Zinaida Gippius, poetess

"Bryusov's main prose work, The Fiery Angel, is perhaps the best Russian novel with a foreign plot."
D. P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky, literary critic, literary critic

“Subsequently, recalling the young Bryusov, I felt that the main sharpness of his then poems lies precisely in the combination of decadent exoticism with the most ingenuous Moscow philistinism. The mixture is very spicy, the break is very sharp, the dissonance is cutting, but that's why Bryusov's early books (up to and including Tertia Vigilia) are still his best books.
Vladislav Khodasevich

Valery Bryusov stood at the origins of symbolism and was a key figure in the literature of the turn of the century, but today he is not of interest to the general public. Is it fair that the poet, whom a whole generation of young writers was guided by, ended up in the shadow of his students? Gorky continues the cycle of materials on Russian modernism: we talked about Bryusov with Mikhail Shaposhnikov, a historian, literary critic, head of the Silver Age Museum department of the State Literary Museum.

Bryusov stood at the origins of the literature of the Silver Age, but is poorly known to a wide range of modern readers. How should one read Bryusov today?

I would not say that he is forgotten. In my opinion, Valery Bryusov is much more interesting for us today than many other modernists. It must be read very carefully. Even in his youth, he proclaimed the slogan: "Only the future is the domain of the poet," and he himself followed it. Bryusov was interested in the present, and especially the past - he was well versed in Egypt, Assyria, the Middle Ages, Rome, Greece - but in them he always looked for a correspondence to modernity and was all directed towards the future. He has poems that now sound absolutely modern - these are "The Coming Huns", "The Pale Horse", "Praise to Man" and many others. Some of Bryusov's stories could serve as material for cinema: for example, "Rhea Sylvia", "Flat", the story "The Last Pages from a Woman's Diary", the story about his parents "Dasha's Betrothal".

Bryusov was brought up in the traditions of the love of freedom of the 1860s, on the novel by Chernyshevsky and the writings of Darwin. What is the connection between these ideas and modernism?

Bryusov stood at the head of Russian modernism both as an organizer and as a poet. Despite the fact that he really was brought up in the spirit of the sixties, he never separated himself from his former teachers - the poets of the Pushkin era and their immediate predecessors. Nevertheless, he saw that poetry in the late 1880s was in the pen, because true lyric poets, such as Fet and Apukhtin, were despised and not published, much like later - in the Soviet years. The same Chernyshevsky said that “Whispers, timid breathing, trills of a nightingale” - this is how a horse can feel, a person should live with ideas, and not describe nature. Bryusov tried, preserving the tradition, to bring into poetry new ideas that came from European literature. Bryusov was a very earthly and realistic person, although he was interested in mystical phenomena, spiritualism, reincarnation, and reflected on the influence of past centuries on the human soul. And this interest was not purely external. Bryusov believed that the area of ​​mysticism is a part of being that is still unknown to man. He believed that this area was simply not explored. In the 19th century, positivist university teachers believed that mathematics, physics and chemistry could explain everything, and mysticism was just absurdity. And others, on the contrary, believed that faith, religion or mysticism were important. Bryusov did not give himself up with fanatical devotion to one or the other camp: he understood that both were important.

What was decadence for Bryusov, an aesthetic game or a life choice?

Bryusov's decadence is not a game or a tribute to fashion, he was such a person, free from dogma. Someone was fascinated by the ideas of the revolution, and someone - by the ideas of free creativity, personal freedom. Bryusov wanted to cleanse literature of bureaucracy, as well as art in general. Thanks to Bryusov and Balmont in Moscow and Merezhkovsky and Gippius in St. Petersburg, as well as other poets, writers and artists, real tectonic shifts took place in Russian culture. This time of breaking old forms was called the Silver Age.

Bryusov was a famous hoaxer with many literary masks. Why did he need them?

In modern terms, this is a pure PR stunt. I had to express myself somehow. His book Russian Symbolists created the illusion that a new literary movement was flourishing in Russia. Some of the authors published in the book were real people - Vladimir Gippius, Nikolai Novich, a couple of other names, but today they are all forgotten, except for him, and, in my opinion, quite rightly. Almost all other names are pseudonyms of Bryusov. If he had simply published a book under his own name, then perhaps there would have been no resonance. He would be like Emelyanov-Kokhansky, a symbolist poet who wrote in the 1890s, in the collection of his poems there was his portrait in the costume of an opera demon, his poems were still the same. Bryusov chose an excellent PR move. There were more than 300 reviews of his book, all negative, but he woke up famous. If a poet only starts with positive reviews, what good is that?

Photo: Maritime Library. M.P. Lazareva

Is there a canon of Bryusov's texts?

Bryusov built his poetry collections in an interesting way - like a poetic confession. The book was divided into certain parts, each of which revealed the history of the poet's soul. But there is one distinguishing feature here: in the collections he often put not real poems, but exercises that are interesting only from the point of view of technique, the search for form. But if you look closely, among these exercises you can find his great standard poems. This applies to almost all of his collections - "Tertiavigilia", "Urbi et Orbi", "Stephanos", "All Melodies" and "Mirror of Shadows", of course. Of the prose works, the novel "The Fiery Angel" is canonical. Bryusov himself said about him: "I will write the best novel." And this is indeed the best symbolist novel. Of course, there are also "Petersburg" and "Silver Dove" by Andrei Bely, who can argue with him. But at least Bryusov believed that he was better than Merezhkovsky.

Khodasevich wrote that Bryusov "did not want to separate the writer from the person, the literary biography from the personal." Is it so?

Not certainly in that way. Khodasevich did not have Bryusov's seven-volume book and did not read poems that Bryusov did not include in the collections, because they were completely different, did not correspond to his image - a strong demonic personality, a conqueror. At that time in the colonial system it was everywhere - Kipling, Haggard, then Gumilyov - a student of Bryusov, they were all winners, and Bryusov could not be a loser in any situation. The image that the poet creates is one thing, but when you read autobiographical details in Bryusov's poem "Mother's Name Day", dissonance arises. It turns out that his family celebrated this holiday in the old fashioned way, they communicated quite nicely and kindly. It is difficult to imagine Bryusov in such a role, but in fact it was. And the fact that he lived with his wife Ioanna Matveevna for twenty-seven years also indicates that he was an adherent of deep relationships. Although his personal life was sometimes subjected to trials and storms. He could not appear in public without a "mask", he needed this for a poetic credo until the very last days of his life. However, this did not negate the fact that he had a family, there were sisters, brothers, for whose fate he was worried. When his younger sister Lydia got married, Khodasevich condemned him, because he knew her husband, the poet Samuil Kissin, nicknamed Muni. Khodasevich believed that Bryusov was against Muni's Jewish origin. In fact, Bryusov was well aware that this Kissin was a person with whom Lydia would not be happy. In addition, Bryusov saw that this man did not have a special gift to grab onto. Muni committed suicide.

Bryusov strove for a quiet home, and this is another, "non-public" Bryusov. Of course, when the young poetess Nadia Lvova, who was in love with him, shot herself, the poet was shocked. All the newspapers wrote that Lvova shot herself with a pistol "given by the famous writer V.B." There was a wild scandal. Then Bryusov was taken away from Moscow by his wife. Soon he returned and performed at one evening. The audience froze in anticipation, and he, of course, gave them:

Let's die the world! Let them sleep in peace

In mute and black silence.

Above us the sun is golden,

Before us the waves are all on fire.

Khodasevich was horrified later, but Bryusov could not do otherwise, it was his image, he could not deceive expectations. Here in the book of poems, which came out two years later, there were already poems reflecting his feelings about the death of Lvova, they were very sad and tragic, but for Bryusov to publicly say that he was tormented and sorry, it was impossible.

Can we say that Bryusov was engaged in life-creation?

He was not particularly interested in life. This, rather, with Merezhkovsky, even with Blok. Yes, Bryusov's "Stephanos" is addressed to Petrovskaya, but it's still not the same. He never allowed himself to be carried away by purely personal experiences, he was above it. The book of poems that he published was never only lyrics, he was interested in some technical achievements, what he would write in terts, write sonnets, make some translations, introduce a new meter that was not known. Khodasevich was horrified by his book “Experiments in metrics and rhythm, in euphony and consonance, in stanza and forms”, but no one except Bryusov did anything like that.

The main theoretical and critical works of Bryusov are devoted to Pushkin. Why did it happen? Did he consider himself the poet's heir?

Pushkin studies had not yet acquired a wide scale, there was no Pushkin House yet, and Bryusov began to study Pushkin at a fairly early stage. His maternal grandfather Alexander Yakovlevich Bakulin, a fabulist, lived in Yelets, and went to St. Petersburg on business, while he went into Smirdin's shop and waited there for hours to see Pushkin. Once he nevertheless met him and then talked about it all his life. Bryusov grew up on this. Then he worked a lot with Bartenev, went through the archives, found Pushkin's manuscripts, published them both in the almanac Northern Flowers, and later in Libra. He published Pushkin's letters to Zhukovsky, Lyceum poems, and even later, when it became possible in 1918, Bryusov published the Gavriiliada. He completed the "Egyptian Nights", which is paradoxical, but it was an attempt to continue the tradition, so he emphasized his connection with the Golden Age of Russian poetry.

How did Bryusov's relations with the Soviet authorities develop?

After the revolution, Bryusov accepted Soviet power, and this is very natural and understandable. He wasn't going anywhere. He did not have an apartment in Paris, unlike the Merezhkovskys. His health was already undermined. Bryusov imagined that he would simply die very soon, they would stop publishing him, but here he would have a completely different weight, would continue to live the way he lived. He generally welcomed the new and decided that what had come had come for a long time. At the age of nineteen, Bryusov wrote in his diary: "I will be the leader," referring to decadence. So Bryusov became a man who turned the history of literature. Lenin, on the other hand, turned the history of the country and the world, and Bryusov understood and appreciated this, he believed that this was a figure that needed to be studied. He was one of the first to write poems on the death of Lenin - however, they were rather peculiar at the very end of his life. It must be understood that we judge him from the heights of our time, but Bryusov did not find even the end of the 1920s, he died in 1924. Had he lived longer, he could have been subjected to repressions, he could well have been written down as a Trotskyist.

Valery Bryusov under the table. Around 1900

Bryusov was not only an outstanding poet and literary critic, but also a teacher, he headed the Higher Literary and Art Institute. How did he come up with the idea of ​​creating a higher educational institution for writers?

Only under Soviet rule was Bryusov able to open the Higher Literary and Art Institute. The idea of ​​literary education belongs to him, and not to Gorky. Gumilyov then continued this in Petrograd in the Workshop of Poets, but Gumilyov, firstly, did not have as many students as Bryusov, and secondly, people of his circle who had already written poetry mostly went to Gumilyov. Bryusov, on the other hand, was taken from scratch, even illiterate people came to him, and if he saw some kind of “spark” in them, he tried to form them. Bryusov is largely an academician, oddly enough. His position was initially like that of Pushkin, he believed that the poet is a profession. Bryusov agreed with Karolina Pavlova, whom she rediscovered, that the ability to write poetry is a "holy craft". Many have argued with this idea. For example, Block. True, not with him directly, but rather with Gumilyov and the Guild of Poets. Bryusov believed that creativity, literary translation is a science, and you can’t get anywhere without a school. He, like Mayakovsky later, was outraged, and rightly so, that Nadson's poems are considered good, while they are written clumsily. Of course, it is a pity for Nadson - the man suffered from tuberculosis of the brain and died at the age of twenty-three, but all the same, his poems were written without observing the size, somehow. Bryusov somehow did not want to, he needed a professional verse. Hence the pathos of all his critical articles. He saw professionalism in Balmont. When he read Severyanin's thin notebooks, he saw that he was a real master, and Pasternak too - Bryusov was attracted by his skill.

What did Bryusov write about in the last years of his life?

His later work is associated with scientific poetry and the search for form. He tried to adopt the manner of Mayakovsky and Pasternak, he understood that they were going ahead. As a philologist, he could try to do something in the "new poetry", but the previous inspiration was no longer there. He has three collections of this kind of poems: "The Moment", "Dali" and "Mea (Hurry)" (the latter was published a few days after his death). Fine verses can be fished out of them, but only a few. There is also a love lyric dedicated to his last lover, the poetess Adeline Adalis. These poems, written in 1921-1922, even now technically stand up to criticism. Bryusov tried to lead the proletarian art, as once symbolism, he believed that he could do it. But, as Heraclitus said, you cannot enter the same river twice. In general, heading something twice is already too much.

And how is Bryusov's legacy being studied today?

Today, Bryusov is studied in sufficient detail. In total there are three centers of Bryusov studies: in Moscow - in Bryusov's house; in Yerevan - at the Bryusov State University of Languages ​​and Social Sciences (the poet translated a huge number of poems from Armenian into Russian, and he was awarded the title of People's Poet of Armenia); in Stavropol - at the university. “Bryusov's Readings” are still being published, one of the issues was published recently in Yerevan, articles about the poet's work, his life are published there, newly found works are published. Recently, a whole collection of his plays was published, there are almost seventeen of them. Previously, everyone knew only one - "Earth", but it turns out that there are much more of them. Also, a large volume "Bryusov the Editor" was published, in which all his articles in periodicals relating to fellow writers and poets of past times were collected. Bryusov was a great critic. You can agree with him or not, he was often unfair, but he noticed many - the same Severyanin. Bryusov did not have a relationship with Tsvetaeva. Later, they also argued a lot with Balmont, and Bryusov had not entirely fair judgments about him, but Khodasevich has the same unfair judgments about Bryusov in Necropolis. It was a time like this: people didn’t go into their pockets for a word and were hard on each other before and after death, they could run over, as they say now. My colleague Monika Orlova also published Bryusov's letters to his wife during the First World War, when he was at the front as a war correspondent. Recently, I published a book in the publishing house "Boslen" - drawings of poets of the Silver Age, in which drawings by Bryusov were finally published. Recently, N. A. Bogomolov published a corpus of Bryusov's letters to Petrovskaya. So Bryusov is not forgotten, they are interested in him. However, it is difficult for the general public to read articles by philologists, so I advise everyone who is interested to read the book by N. S. Ashukin and R. L. Shcherbakov from the ZhZL series or the biography of Bryusov written by Vasily Molodyakov.

Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich (1873 - 1924) - Russian and Soviet poet, prose writer, editor, translator. One of the first Russian writers who turned to the artistic direction of symbolism.

Life path and creativity

Valery Bryusov was born into the Moscow family of the merchant Yakov Bryusov on December 1 (13), 1873. Parents limited the boy's access to religious literature and promoted Darwin's theories and atheism. Despite this, he received an excellent education in private gymnasiums.

"The Youth of a Genius" (1890s - 1899).

In 1893-99. Bryusov was a student of the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. By this time, there was a passion for the writings of French symbolists, a decision to develop symbolism in Russian literature. In 1894-95. Bryusov, hiding under the name of Valery Maslov, publishes 3 collections called "Russian Symbolists", in which he publishes translations, his own poems and poems by other authors.

In 1895, he published a collection of poems "Chefs d "oeuvre" ("Masterpieces"). Young Bryusov is characterized by narcissism and a sense of superiority over the ordinary. At this time, he wrote in his diary: "My youth is the youth of a genius". The first collection and early works are characterized by the themes of the struggle with the outdated world, the desire to get away from everyday life and create a new world, similar to what Bryusov found in the writings of the Symbolists.

The young poet is actively experimenting with the form and rhyme of the verse. For example, the scandalous monostic “Oh close these pale legs” (1895), in which the literary community saw both a mockery of poetry, erotic overtones or biblical motifs.

After university, he works in the Russian Archive magazine, and becomes close to Balmont. Since 1899, Bryusov has headed the Scorpio publishing house.

Pre-revolutionary period (1900-1917)

Bryusov is noted in the history of Russian literature as an active publisher and editor. After "Scorpio" he participates in the publication of the almanac "Balance", one of the leading magazines of Russian symbolism.

Every three years he publishes a collection of poems: "The Third Guard" (1900), highly noted in the creative environment; "City and Peace" (1903), "Wreath" (1906), in which he refers to the image of the city and civil lyrics. The following collections are marked by intimacy, sincerity, and simplicity of expressing thoughts and feelings: “All Melodies” (1909), “Mirror of Shadows” (1912).

During the First World War, the poet went to the front as a correspondent, creating patriotic poems. This spiritual upsurge is soon replaced by other moods, full of premonitions of the imminent death of the modern system. During the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. Bryusov creates the drama "Earth" (1904) about the death of mankind, the short story "The Last Martyrs" (1906) about the end of the life of Russian intellectuals.

The revolution of 1917 and the establishment of a new government were received with enthusiasm by Bryusov. This is noted in the poetic (five new collections of poems), translation, educational and teaching activities. At Moscow University, the poet lectured on literature and history. He took part in the formation of various Soviet literary and poetic associations.

In 1919-1921. headed the All-Russian Union of Poets. He created the Literary and Art Institute (1921), headed it as a rector, received the academic title of professor.

Bryusov's later poems are marked by the glorification of the new Soviet system, interest in science as a source of inspiration, the search for new sounds and poetic forms.

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was born on December 1 (December 13) in Moscow into a merchant family. The future poet received his primary education at home. Since 1885, Bryusov studied at the classical gymnasium of F.I. Kreiman in Moscow. In 1890 he was transferred to the Moscow Gymnasium L. I. Polivanov.

University years

In 1893, Bryusov entered the Faculty of History and Philology at Moscow University. During this period, Valery Yakovlevich discovers the French symbolists - Verlaine, Baudelaire, Mallarmé. Admiring the work of Verlaine, he creates the drama “The Decadents. (End of the century)."

Positioning himself as the founder of Russian symbolism, in 1894 - 1895 Valery Yakovlevich published three collections "Russian Symbolists".

In 1895, Bryusov's first collection of poems "Masterpieces" ("Chefs d'oeuvre") was published, which caused a wide resonance among literary critics. In 1897, the second collection of the poet, Me eum esse (This is me), was published.

Mature creativity

After graduating from the university in 1899 with a diploma of the 1st degree, Bryusov gets a job in P. Bartenev's magazine "Russian Archive". The poet is actively engaged in literary activity. In 1900, Bryusov's third collection Tertia Vigilia (The Third Guard) was published, which brought him literary fame.

Bryusov becomes one of the founders of the Scorpio publishing house. Since 1903, he has been collaborating in the New Way magazine. In the same year, the poet's collection "Urbi et Orbi" ("City and Peace") was published.

In 1901-1905, Bryusov took part in the creation of the almanac "Northern Flowers". In 1904 - 1909 he was the de facto editor of the Russian symbolist magazine "Vesy". Since 1908, Valery Bryusov, whose biography was full of new acquaintances with young writers, became the director of the Moscow literary and artistic circle.

The work of the poet between two revolutions

Bryusov's reaction to the moods and events of the revolution of 1905-1907 was the drama "Earth" and the collection "Wreath" (1905). In 1907, his prose collection of short stories, The Earth's Axis, was published; in 1909, the poetic collection All Melodies was published. In the post-revolutionary years, Valery Yakovlevich created the novel "Altar of Victory" (1911 - 1912), a collection of short stories "Nights and Days" (1913).

In 1914, during the First World War, Bryusov went to the front as a war correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti. In 1916 he published the collection Seven Colors of the Rainbow.

last years of life

With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, in 1917 - 1919, Valery Yakovlevich took the post of head of the Committee for the Registration of the Press. In 1919-1921 he was appointed chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets. With the organization of the Higher Literary and Art Institute in 1921, Bryusov became its rector and professor.

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov died on October 9, 1924 from pneumonia. The poet was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. In memory of the life and work of Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich, a monument with a portrait was erected on his grave.

Valery YakovlevichBryusov rightfully belongs to one of the leading places in the history of Russian symbolism. He is the inspirer and initiator of the first collective performance of the "new" poets (collections "Russian Symbolists", 1894 - 1895), one of the leaders of the publishing house "Scorpion" and the journal "Vesy", which united the main forces of symbolism in the 1890s, theorist of the "new "directions and an active participant in all intra-symbolist polemics and discussions. A long black tightly buttoned frock coat, a starched collar, Napoleonic arms crossed on his chest - with such mean strokes, Bryusov created his image of a "feeder", "commander and conqueror of Russian symbolism", "trendsetter", "prophet" and "magician".

Valery Bryusov was born on December 13, 1873 in Moscow, into a middle-class merchant family. He wrote: “I was the first child and came into the world when my father and mother were still experiencing the strongest influence of the ideas of their time. Naturally, they passionately devoted themselves to my upbringing and, moreover, on the most rational foundations ... Under the influence of their convictions, my parents put fantasy and even all the arts very low, everything artistic”. In his autobiography, he added: “From infancy, I saw books around me (my father built a pretty good library for himself) and heard talk about “smart things”. From fairy tales, from any "devilry" I was diligently protected. On the other hand, I learned about Darwin's ideas and the principles of materialism before I learned multiplication... I... didn't read either Tolstoy, or Turgenev, or even Pushkin; of all the poets in our house, only an exception was made to for Nekrasov, and as a boy I knew most of his poems by heart.”

“Passion ... mine for literature was growing. I started new works all the time. I wrote poetry, so much so that I soon filled up the thick Poesie notebook that had been given to me. I have tried all forms - sonnets, tetracins, octaves, triolets, rondos, all sizes. I wrote dramas, short stories, novels... Every day carried me further and further. On the way to the gymnasium, I thought about new works, in the evening, instead of learning lessons, I wrote .. I had huge bags of scribbled paper”.

In 1893Bryusovgraduatedgymnasium, then studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University.

First snow

Silver, lights and sparkles -

A whole world of silver!

Birches burn in pearls,

Black and naked yesterday.

This is the realm of someone's dream

It's ghosts and dreams!

All items of old prose

Illuminated by magic.

Crews, pedestrians,

White smoke on the sky.

The life of people and the life of nature

Full of new and holy things.

The embodiment of dreams

Life with a dream is a game

This world of charms

This world of silver!

At the end of 1892, the young Bryusov became acquainted with the poetry of French symbolism - Verlaine, Rambo, Malarme - which had a great influence on his future work. In 1894 - 95 he compiled small collections "Russian Symbolists", most of which were written by Bryusov himself. Some of these verses spoke of the author's talent.

In 1895ValeryBryusov publishes the book "Masterpieces", in 1897 - the book "This is me" about the world of subjective decadent experiences, proclaiming egocentrism. In 1899, after graduating from the university, Valery Yakovlevich completely devoted himself to literary activity.

Andrey Bely

I believed many to a frenzy,

With such hope, with such love!

And my delirium of love was sweet to me,

Burnt by fire, drenched in blood.

How deaf in the abyss, where loneliness,

Where the milky-gray dusk froze ...

On the muddy heights the robes blacken!

"Brother, what do you see?" Like the sound of a hammer

Like out-of-the-world laughter, I hear a response:

"In the radiance of the sky - wine and gold! -

How bright they gave! what a glorious evening!"

Surrendering again, I hurry to the steep

On sharp stones, between their fractures.

My hands cut prickly flowers,

I hear the laughter of underground gnomes.

But in the heart - with a thirst, a strict decision,

Hope burns with a tired beam.

I believed a lot, I cursed a lot

And he took revenge on the unfaithful in his hour with a dagger.

In 1900, the book "The Third Guard" was published, after which Bryusov received recognition as a great poet. In 1903 he published the book "City and Peace", in 1906 - "Wreath", his best poetic books.
For Bryusov, the time has come when critics recognized him, he becomes a great poet.In subsequent years, his poetry became more chamber, new features of his lyrics appear: intimacy, sincerity, simplicity in expressing thoughts and feelings.Bryusov's later lyrics:books "All Melodies" (1909), "Mirror of Shadows" (1912)contains special features that distinguish the author from other poets. Poem of subsequent periodscreativityBryusovafull of zeal.

During the First World War, having gone to the front from one of the most widespread newspapers, Russkiye Vedomosti, Bryusov published a large number of correspondence and articles on military issues. The false patriotic frenzy quickly passes, the war more and more appears to Bryusov in its disgusting guise. He has sharply critical poems (“The two-headed eagle”, “A lot can be sold ..”, etc.), which, of course, then remain unpublished. As the widow of the writer I.M. Bryusov testifies, in May 1915 he “finally returned deeply disappointed by the war, no longer having the slightest desire to see the battlefield.”

Desperate to find real, exciting topics, to feel and convey the fullness of life, he is more and more immersed in the abyss of “creation of poetry”. He is looking for especially refined rhymes, creates poems of the most outlandish and rare form. He creates old French ballads, writes poetry, where all words begin with one letter, tries to revive the formal methods of the poets of the Alexandrian era. He achieves exceptional technical sophistication. Many contemporaries recall how they were stunned by the improvisational talent of Bryusov, who knew how to instantly write a classic sonnet. During this period he creates two "wreaths of sonnets". A little later, he publishes the collection “Experiences”, where he strives to present the most diverse and complex ways of rhyming and poetic meters.

One of the most grandiose poetic ideas belongs to these years.Bryusova- "Dreams of mankind". It originated athimin 1909, but finally took shape in 1913. Bryusov intended to present “the soul of humanity, as far as it was expressed in his lyrics. These should not be translations or imitations, but a series of poems written in the forms that centuries have successively created for themselves in order to express their cherished dreams.". Even according to the original plans, "Dreams of Humanity" should have been at least four volumes, about three thousand poems. Bryusov intended to present all the forms that the lyrics have passed in all peoples and at all times. This edition was supposed to cover all eras from the songs of primitive tribes to European decadence and neo-realism. This gigantic plan was not destined to end.

Z. Gippius

(When receiving "The Last Poems")

Woman, insanely proud!

I understand your every hint,

white spring fever

With all the wrath of ringing lines!

All words are like a sting of hate,

All words are like piercing steel!

The poison of a drunken dagger

I kiss you more, looking into the distance ...

But in the distance I see - the sea, the sea,

A gigantic sketch of new countries,

Where the hurricane roars and howls!

Scary, sweet, inevitable, necessary

I - to rush into a multi-foam shaft,

To you - a green-eyed naiad

Singing, splashing at the Irish rocks.

High - above us - above the waves -

Like the dawn over black rocks -

The banner is flying - the Internationale!

On Gorky's advice,Valery YakovlevichIn 1915, representatives of the Moscow Armenian Committee asked to take over the organization and editing of a collection of translations of Armenian poetry, covering more than one and a half thousand years of its history. In 1916, the collection "Poetry of Armenia" was published, most of the translations in which were made by him. In fact, this was the first acquaintance of the Russian writer with the history of Armenian poetry from folk songs to the present.

To the Armenians

And now, in this new world,

In the crowd of restless tribes,

You got up - with a stern face

For us mysterious times.

But what was is forever alive

In the past - a reward and a lesson.

You have the right to wear proudly

Your centuries-old wreath.

And we, the great legacy

Marveling, we hear vows in it.

So! Past heavy brass

Buzzing over every new day.

And I believe, the people of Tigran,

That, having overcome the storm again,

You will emerge from the mist as a star,

Ripe for new exploits;

What is your living lyre again,

Over the stones of decayed slabs,

Two alien, two hostile worlds

Will unite in a higher melody!

The role of Bryusov in the promotion of Armenian culture was not limited to this. He also published an extensive work “The Chronicle of the Historical Destinies of the Armenian People”, was the author of a number of articles dedicated to the figures of Armenian culture. All this brought Bryusov high recognition. In 1923 he was awarded the honorary title of People's Poet of Armenia.

On October 9, 1924, before reaching the age of 51, Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov died in Moscow.